This is a crosspost from /s/Activism, a sub that promotes constructive strategies to change the culture. Check it out if you'd like to see more discussions and analyses of grassroots activism.

Propertarianism was a quasi-libertarian movement led by Curt Doolittle and John Mark. Last month, they staged a rally in Richmond that went over very poorly. This video has a good summary of the rally and the movement in general. The points below break down what went wrong and how this failure could have been prevented.

• The biggest reason why Propertarianism failed is simply that the leaders turned it into a huge drama and quit. They could have easily brushed off the criticism, kept going, and built up their popularity again. Instead they panicked, took everything personally, and dropped out.

• The leaders hyped the Richmond rally into the biggest thing ever. It was to be a "Declaration of Reformation" on par with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Delusions of grandeur like this are a very common problem among budding movements. They get hopes up only to disappoint in the end.

• Instead of giving an overwrought Dwight Schrute-esque speech, Doolittle should have put together a less ambitious event like a book signing. It's better to have a small success than a huge failure.

• The rally was not organized by Propertarians, merely used by them. This meant that they did not manage who was invited or who could speak at the podium. A private invitation-only event would have been better, or at least a more exclusive event where random BLM activists would not show up and ask to speak.

• Overall I don't see the failure of Propertarianism as a loss since (as the YouTuber notes) both Doolittle and Mark glowed hard and were regular fedposters. Their entire movement was very shady from the start. Regardless, it's interesting to learn from their failures.